This invention pertains to the art of disposing of pyrotechnic compositions, particularly those compositions which comprise a polymerically bound binder containing an inorganic oxidizer, finely divided metal fuel and optionally a burning rate modifier and other specialized additives, which are useable principally in the field of rocket and missile propellants, smoke and gas generators, and illuminants.
The most common past method of disposal of such compositions which were overage, surplus, or otherwise unuseable, was by open pit burning. This method while safe, suffered from the drawbacks that it contributed a great deal of atmospheric pollution, resulted in total destruction of the propellant precluding recovery of any economically valuable or scarce components thereof, and prevented reuse of hardware components associated with the composition.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,451,789 details a process for the recovery of inorganic oxidizers from water insoluble solid propellant matrices. In this process, cured propellant grain is comminuted to fine particle size by milling and then dissolving out the oxidizer by leaching with water. This method requires that the propellant grain be free of any hardware, that energy be used to power whatever mechanical grinding method is employed, and that the metallic fuel particles remain substantially dispersed in the polymeric binder.
The method of the instant invention eliminates the pollution and a large portion of the economic waste associated with open pit burning, allows recovery of the oxidizer, metallic fuel and any associated hardware, does not require prior removal of the pyrotechnic compositions from any hardware to which they may be attached, and does not require the energy expenditure of milling.